THE TAKING - AN INDIE FILM THAT GRABS

My Dad always says to me, 'Son, in this world there are two types of people. There are givers. And there are takers. Then there is your Uncle Nick'. But hey! That's enough about that particular horror story, folks. Here. Check out this other one created by my great mate, Lydelle Jackson. Trust me. It's bites. Chomp-Chomp!!!

1) What are your own origins, Lydelle? Plus what path did you take in life prior to getting to were you are today? Cezil was born in Virginia. Myself, I was born in the Philippines on a military base. I spent the majority of my childhood in Misawa, Japan, and my teenage years in Northern Virginia right outside of Washington, D.C. That's where Cezil and I met. We first had a science class together in 8th grade, but really didn't start hanging out until we were 16 since he was one of the first people to get a car, lol.

As far as my story is concerned, I sort of lived a double life. Half nerd, half running around in the streets. I think that if I didn't have the nerd side of myself (anime, comic books, animation, illustration, etc.) I probably would have wound up being sucked into the underworld completely because I did dabble pretty deeply into things that were not very becoming of an upstanding citizen. Nonetheless, after seeing a lot of my friends get into some tough situations, I was smart enough to pull away and continue my pursuit of art.

I grew up wanting to be a comic book creator / illustrator / storyteller. So, when Cezil went to Columbia College, we decided to write stories together via phone calls, IM, and emails. This eventually turned into us evolving into The BAPartists.

2) What inspired you to form ‘The BAP Artists’ with Cezil? We always wanted to present ourselves as a duo rather than two individuals. So we wanted something that could be attached to our style, that being, always putting the art first. Plus, the name was originally going to a record label I (Lydelle) wanted to form, but instead we decided to make it a name for a film production company.

3) How did the ‘The Taking Movie’ come about? Basically, we were hired to write a feature length script for a friend who is a successful lawyer. She's an actor at heart so she hired us to write a feature length script that would star her in it. The idea was that we'd write and direct it. However, after spending nearly a year and a half going back and forth with her about the script she decided to pull away from the project for a little while because she had a number of other things going on with her including giving birth to her first child.

Since that happened, we didn't know what to do. We were just two completely independent film-making dudes with no feature film under our belt. We wanted to move to tinsel town to start our careers, but decided that we didn't want to enter the belly of the beast without having something to show of ourselves. We were afraid of the walls that we would run into trying to convince someone to buy a script from us, let alone allow us to also direct it.

So, we saved up our money and dumped all of our paychecks for the following year into 'The Taking'. I mean, it wasn't easy. Cezil had to move in with his mother while he worked a desk job, and I had gotten laid off from my job so I took up the quickest job I could get -- Carpet Cleaning. It was tough, to make it worst, I was living in my buddies basement with his wife and three children. I didn't even have a bed or curtains because I put every penny I got into 'The Taking' (student loans, bills, life stuff, of course). You could imagine what a lady killer I was at that point in my life, haha.

Basically, after realizing that it would take a while for our friend to get back to us, we quickly decided to write a new script and to shoot directly after completion of the script. It was arduous.

In terms of where the ideas came from, it was during a period when Cezil was experiencing night terrors. So we became fascinated with possession. That was the starting point. We just started studying about people losing their souls or being overtaken by demons. Next we did what any indie filmmaker without a budget should do -- we considered all the resources that we had at our disposal. My grandmother owns some land in Stafford, Virginia, so we knew we had a wooded location that we could utilize for free and without fear of getting shut down.

Then the ball started rolling from there.

4) In your own words how would you describe this film? Dark and brutal, a film that takes patience but pays off with euphoria (I'm being overly hyperbolic). If you like horror, but also you enjoy putting a little more attention to films, you'll love it...and that's the truth.

5) If your movie omitted a smell, what odor would it be and why? It would smell like dry grass and rotting flesh. There'd be a heaviness to the aroma. 'The Taking' is a hardcore film. There's not a single laughing moment. It's dark, heavy, and very close to nature.

6) If you could get a known celebrity – either living or dead – to promote your flick, who would you chose, and why would you want this particular person? Brian Hugh Warner. The man, not the rock icon, has some dark sensibilities and an astute nature that would match well with the tone and the seriousness of the film. It would be great if he were to just tweet it.

7) What were the main obstacles you had to contend with? I think if you ask any independent filmmaker the biggest issue will almost always be funding. So, while it's cliché, it's the truth. The money situation was rough. However, it's something that can be overcome with enough time and commitment. Having patience and keeping your eye on the prize is really the only way to overcome it, or you could be born rich, that helps too.

In the end, when you have a dream you should do everything that you can in order to achieve it, as long as you don't hurt others in the process. Of course, with money issues comes a myriad of other obstacles, such as selling your cast and crew on a promise that you'll be creating a project that is worthy of their valuable time and effort. This is hard to do when you have people in the middle of the woods during hot and muggy weather for 14 hours a day and two weeks straight. Having to bargain with post-production services for the best hook-ups possible. Being your own marketer and stomaching all the hours that it demands from you. Asking favors of friends, family, and businesses for things and stressing relationships.

There becomes a point where it becomes very spiritually and emotionally exhausting. But we have managed to survive and can see the finish line approaching... I sure hope that's not a mirage up ahead!

Another huge obstacle was trying to discover a way to make our film feel complete...different...we wound up shooting more footage over the course of nearly a year in order to really bring the life out of 'The Taking'. So, patience was another thing that was an interesting obstacle to overcome, not settling for mediocrity, or at least what we'd consider to be mediocrity.

8) If ‘Taking’ had a motto, what do you think it would be? Many are called, all are taken....#GETREADY

Damn straight we will, Lydelle. So on your marks, dear reader, and get set to check out The BAP Artist'sFacebook and Twitter pages. Go-Go-Go. Click-Click-Click.